Background

Mervyn LeRoy was born on October 15, 1900, in San Francisco, California, United States to the family of Harry LeRoy and Edna Armer. His paternal grandfather was a successful businessman in San Francisco and owned a departmental store. However, the great earthquake of 1906 completely destroyed the shop and the family was financially ruined.

Education

Mervyn LeRoy received no formal education.

Career

Mervyn LeRoy earned his first money by selling newspapers; that became his entreé to show business when one of his customers helped him get a part onstage as a newsboy. He performed in vaudeville as “the Singing Newsboy.” His cousin Jesse Lasky helped him get a job folding costumes at Famous Players - Lasky in 1919, and from there he ascended from lab technician to assistant cameraman. LeRoy managed a parallel career as an actor, often playing juveniles in films from 1922 to 1924. After he outgrew those parts, LeRoy moved behind the scenes, writing gags (and sometimes more) for such Colleen Moore pictures as Sally (1925), Ella Cinders (1926), and Twinkletoes (1926). In 1927 Warner Brothers signed him to direct, and he commenced this most-important phase of his career with such low-budget efforts as Harold Teen (1928) and Oh Kay! (1928). Hot Stuff (1929), a comedy with Alice White, was his first sound picture, and White also starred in Broadway Babies (1929) and Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), an inside-Hollywood yarn with portions shot in Technicolor.

LeRoy was signed by Warner Brothers in 1927 and created many classic movies of different genres for the studio, including the famous gangster films ‘Little Caesar’ and ‘I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang’. In 1938, he joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and produced several films, including the classic, ‘The Wizard of Oz’. He also directed romances like ‘Waterloo Bridge’ and ‘Random Harvest’.

A period of lavish, high-budget films that included Little Women and Quo Vadis? ended in the mid-1950s when a dispute with MGM head, Dore Schary, resulted in LeRoy’s return to Warner Brothers. Many of his last films were based on adaptations of stage successes, among them Mister Roberts and the musical Gypsy. In the mid-1970s, a decade after he had ceased to be active in films, he was awarded the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Though never an Oscar winner for his directing and producing, he was the recipient of a special award in 1945 for The House I Live In, a short film preaching tolerance.

Mervyn LeRoy died on September 13, 1987, in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles after a long battle with Alzheimer. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles.

Achievements

• 

  Mervyn LeRoy was an eminent American film director and producer. Although eight of his films received a nomination in the Academy Awards Best Picture category, he received only a single nomination for Best Director. In 1945, he received a special Oscar for a short documentary on religious intolerance titled ‘The House I Live In’. In 1975, he won the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Academy Award. He holds the record for having the maximum number of films (eight), directed or co-directed that were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. His version of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ became iconic.

Works

More photos

• book

  • It Takes More Than Talent 1953
  • Mervyn LeRoy: take one 1974

• movie

  • No Time for Sergeants

    (Andy Griffith stars as a naïve, stubborn, Georgia farm bo...)

    1958
  • Little Caesar

    (Edward Robinson introduced the world to a new gangster in...)

    1931
  • Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

    (Oscar-winning fact-based World War II picture about Gener...)

    1944
  • East Side, West Side

    (Ava Gardner, James Mason and Barbara Stanwyck star in thi...)

    1949
  • Strange Lady In Town

    (It doesn't take Boston physician Julia Garth long to expe...)

    1955
  • The Wizard of Oz

    (The Wizard of Oz follows Dorothy and her dog Toto when th...)

    1939
  • Quo Vadis

    (This is the powerful story of a Roman soldier whose roman...)

    1951
  • The Bad Seed

    (Young Patty McCormack received an Oscar nomination for he...)

    1956

Membership

• Founding Member

  Hollywood Turf Club , United States

Personality

Mervyn LeRoy was passionate about horseracing and owned several pure-bred racehorses. He served as the President of the Hollywood Park racetrack until 1985.

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  horseracing

Connections

Mervyn LeRoy was married thrice. His first marriage was with actress, Elizabeth Edna Murphy, in 1927 and they divorced 1933. He married Doris Warner in 1934 and after having two children, Warner Lewis and Linda Mervyn, divorced her in 1942. In 1946, he married Katherine Spiegel and this marriage lasted till his death.

Father:

Harry LeRoy

Mother:

Edna Armer

ex-wife:

Elizabeth Edna Murphy

ex-wife:

Doris Warner

Son:

Warner Lewis LeRoy

Daughter:

Linda Mervyn LeRoy Janklow

Wife:

Katherine Spiegel

Cousin:

Jesse Lasky

colleague:

Ronald Reagan

Mervyn LeRoy introduced Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan, who eventually married.

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 166 This volume of Contemporary Authors contains biographical information on approximately 300 modern writers.
  1998
• A tribute to Mervyn LeRoy
  1967
• The Hollywood Professionals Vol. 5: King Vidor, John Cromwell, Mervyn LeRoy
  1976